St. Roch (ship)

St. Roch wintering in the Beaufort Sea.
St. Roch wintering in the Beaufort Sea, 1948.
History
Canada
NameSt. Roch
BuilderBurrard Dry Dock Co. Ltd., North Vancouver
Launched7 May 1928
StatusDesignated a National Historic Site of Canada at the Vancouver Maritime Museum, 1962
General characteristics [1]
TypeAuxiliary Police Schooner
Displacement323 long tons (328 t)
Length104 ft 3 in (31.78 m)
Beam24 ft 9 in (7.54 m)
Draft12 ft 6 in (3.81 m)
Depth of hold11 ft (3.4 m)
Propulsion
Official nameSt. Roch National Historic Site of Canada
Designated1962

RCMPV St. Roch is a Royal Canadian Mounted Police schooner, the first ship to completely circumnavigate North America, and the second vessel to transit the Northwest Passage. She was the first ship to complete the Northwest Passage in the west to east direction (Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean), using the same route that Amundsen on the sailing vessel Gjøa had traversed east to west, 38 years earlier.

The ship was most often captained by Henry Larsen.[2]

Liverpool-born Sgt. Fred S. Farrar RCMP (1901-1954) was a crew member of St. Roch for various voyages including the 1950 voyage that circumnavigated North America; he wrote the book Arctic Assignment: The Story of the St. Roch which was published posthumously in 1955.

The Stan Rogers song "Take It From Day To Day" is the lament of a crew member on St. Roch.

The ship is located at the Vancouver Maritime Museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and is open to the public for scheduled visits.[3]

  1. ^ "Historic Naval Ships Visitors Guide - RCMPV St. Roch". www.hnsa.org. Archived from the original on 2010-03-29. Retrieved 2009-08-29.
  2. ^ a b "Henry Larsen and the St. Roch". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2009-08-29.
  3. ^ James P. Delgado (2003). "Arctic workhorse: the RCMP schooner St. Roch". Torchwood Publishing. ISBN 9780920663868. Retrieved 2012-03-12.

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